Woodsman Sarah, Or, I Learned to Build a Fire
Posted on: January 13, 2011
- In: Life
- 21 Comments
When we moved into our apartment, we laughed that it had a fireplace. A fireplace. In southern Texas. Now you’re laughing. Even though we laughed, we knew right away, the moment it was cold enough to put the fireplace to use, we would. December came a went. No fire. Then the new year began. Still, no fire. Finally, this last week, we had an “arctic blast” {weatherman’s words, not mine} and the daytime temperatures have been in the high 30’s / low 40’s and slightly dreary. Perfect fireplace weather.
Feel the warmth?
Monday I told the girls I would attempt to build and start a fire. After much coaxing turned begging and finally walking away, I had a fire going. It was slow at first, but then it burned for several hours, using up all our wood. Tuesday we bought more wood, and I started yet another fire. Come Wednesday night, I tried my hand once again. We celebrated my new found ability by roasting marsh mellows. Yummy.
Yes, those are stockings you see. All our Christmas decorations are still up, with no plans of taking them down soon. And it's not from my love of Christmas, just sheer laziness.
Now, it might not seem like a big deal to start a fire all on your own. Plenty of people have done it. But I can’t honestly say I’ve ever started a fire by myself before this week. I’ve always started fires with other people, had help collecting kindling, help coaxing it, and bringing it to life. Never all by myself, where the fire won’t start unless I start it. It was a pretty great feeling!
Up next? Starting a fire without matches! {Well, ok, that might be a bit of a stretch.}
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
21 Responses to "Woodsman Sarah, Or, I Learned to Build a Fire"
January 13, 2011 at 8:25 am
Yep, that’s my resourceful girl. And good to teach those two girls they can do it too, someday!
January 13, 2011 at 9:03 am
I don’t think I’ve ever started a fire either. I’ll have to tell Dexter to back off one of these days and do it myself! I have to say…walking to school in YOUR arctic blast sounds a lot more fun than walking to school in MY arctic blast!
January 13, 2011 at 9:41 am
I’ve never started a fire on my own either! Too funny. May have to give it a try.
January 13, 2011 at 9:42 am
3 things:
1. Go you! I’ve never realized this until reading this post, but I guess I’ve never started a fire all by myself either. Well… I mean, I set our backyard on fire when I was a kid, but I haven’t built a fireplace fire before. 😉
2. No worries about the Christmas decorations. No rush! Ours just got put up this week (last year they got put up Jan 22).
3. You and your girls are just so adorable! 🙂
January 13, 2011 at 9:51 am
Awesome. My husband is the expert fire starter in our family. I should watch and learn.
January 13, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Yeah, my Christmas stuff is still up too and also because of sheer laziness.
Great job on the fire! I’ve never started one myself, we just use those ready-logs (the log in the paper that you light the paper and voila). Real wood fires are so much better–good for you!
January 13, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Thanks ladies! It was a lot of fun starting it on my own. And the girls really loved it. Julia kept asking to blow on it to get the flames to grow bigger. And Hannah just kept wanting to add more sticks. 🙂
January 13, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I think you should add this to your 30 before 30 list!
I mean this could seriously come in handy someday! Think about it.
P.S. Are you on Skype? How can I chat with you? Jake said this morning that he misses you guys (after Evie pointed out how your kids can walk around in underwear b/c it is warmer in Texas.)
January 13, 2011 at 5:14 pm
I am on Skype {not literally right now, though}. I’ll email you my user info.
January 13, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Way to go Sarah, fire starting is serious business!! I like the idea of roasting marshmallows too, perhaps I’ll have to learn to start fires also!
January 13, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Impressive! Your blog makes me want to go make a fire for the first time too. 🙂
January 13, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Wahoo!! Way to go 🙂 It get’s easier every time you go to start one too. We have a wood stove and because of that I consider myself a pro at fire starting.. But only because I don’t want to freeze my booty off!
January 13, 2011 at 7:04 pm
I would love a fireplace, even if we would never really use it all that much. This makes me think about all those people who go on Survivor and don’t know how to start a fire. You’d think they’d learn from early seasons. =p
January 13, 2011 at 7:36 pm
You’d think so, right? 🙂
January 17, 2011 at 7:42 am
Ha! Obviously, Sarah would do better than most of us who have admitted we’ve never started fires…:D 😀 😀
January 17, 2011 at 3:23 pm
So Impressive Sarah! Looks so nice. There is nothing like getting cozy in front of a fireplace on a chilly day!
[…] 3. Learn to build a fire without using matches […]
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
January 13, 2011 at 8:16 am
Ya’ll are so cute. I’m envious of your fireplace…they are so cozy.
I’m not sure I’ve ever started a fire by myself…now that you mention it!